Bihar's liquor crackdown has hit the state's poorest offenders worst

The manner in which prohibition arrests are made indicates a bias among Bihar's law enforcement agencies, said social scientist DM Diwakar. "They are arresting carriers, not businessmen," he said

In the dead of night, Rajesh (name changed) visits a graveyard in his town in central Bihar four times a week. “A desolate place like that is safe to receive my weekly consignment of alcohol,” he said. “We keep changing locations. Sometimes we meet deep in the farmlands.”

Clad in a pair of greasy shorts and a torn T-shirt, Rajesh, in his mid-40s, is a car mechanic but his biggest earnings--over Rs 1 lakh a month--come from bootlegging in the state that was declared dry in 2016. “Don’t go by my attire,”